Gymno

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Who would have thought that getting my life back would mean I'd be home so little? Though I certainly can't complain - went out with friends every single day last week and both weekend nights.

Monday - Open Mic night at Eddie's Attic; a fairly "famous" place here in Atlanta for discovering acoustic talent
Tuesday - trivia at Thinking Man's; we lost
Wednesday - half-priced appetizers at Surin-of-Thailand and $4.75 pitchers of Labatts at Limerick Junction.
Thursday - promised myself I wouldn't go out, was promptly talked into coming over to the boys place to make cookies and watch MXC
Friday - I can't remember...must have been fun. ;-)
Saturday - Fahrenheit 9/11 (more on that later)
Sunday - Pride Parade (more on that later)
Monday - David Sedaris book signing; awesome, but waaay too long
Tuesday - celebratory drinks with the ladies; celebrating Cara's boyfriend's acceptance into the grad school of his choice and my invitation to stay and work at the cdc in the fall

Pride Parade

Was awesome. Marched with my local NOW group. Low points - sunburned, then rained on. High points - the sheer number of religious groups marching in the parade and the fact that nearly every church we passed had volunteers passing out ice cold water to marchers. Sweet little old church ladies handing cups to drag queens. My favorite - a Lutheran minister who ran out into our group and requested a NOW sticker to add to the large collection of AIDS and marriage equality stickers already decorating his vestments. Entire families lining the parade route, little kids running around, happy same-sex couples walking hand-in-hand wearing t-shirts for a particular political candidate. The fact that local political candidates had people marching in the parade. The whole thing was just very heartening. We can use more things that raise us up these days.

Fahrenheit 9/11

Was awesome, of course. He's preaching to the choir. Of course, there were times when I didn't think his arguments held up, or I thought he went too far or whatever. And I'm just about all talked out about it. But I will add this: The one thing we kept coming back to afterwards, was the last 20 minutes or so. I truly hope that people will make it to the end of this film. Even the people who dislike Michael Moore, even the people who spend the first hour and forty minutes shaking their heads. Hang in there. Because in the last 20 minutes Moore manages to make the most eloquent, articulate, and poignant statement of how opposing the war in Iraq can also mean supporting the troops that I have heard in a long time...maybe ever. Everyone needs to hear this statement. Everyone needs to hang on to this statement. Amelia says it best:

"and then i realized that this woman was exactly what the administration wanted her to be. if they had their way, we would never believe that anyone's child was dead. there were no civilian casualties. no napalm and no crushed children. furthermore, we don't show pictures of flag-draped coffins, because there aren't any. it's nobody's son -- just some poor kid from flint."
Other things that piss me off

A girl was raped, by a group of guys, the thing was videotaped and the jury couldn't reach a verdict. How little respect must you have for women, to watch an unconscious girl get raped, repeatedly, and think maybe it wasn't rape? Maybe those boys don't need to spend time in jail?

An outspoken abortion critic, the kind of doctor who prescribes prayer instead of medication, has been reappointed to the FDA panel. He's being reappointed as a member of the reproductive health advisory committee!
And something to inspire me

My old friend Ali, from that summer I interned in Washington, started a mental health awareness group on her college campus the year after her brother committed suicide. It has since grown. Wander over and check it out and be inspired to enact change in an area you care about. My personal summer projects - defeating SR 595 in GA, a bill which will not only make gay marriage illegal...again, since it already is illegal in the state of GA, but will even further strip away the meager number of rights gay couples do have. And getting printers for our electronic voting machines. Because voting without a permanent record or a way to recount and confirm votes doesn't seem very much like democracy to me. Nor does the suggestion by a member of the Bush administration (forgive me, I'm too tired to go look it up, but I'm sure you can find the story on Atrios) that were another terrorist attack to happen in this country, we should have a contingency plan for canceling or postponing elections. Someone should remind that guy that we managed to hold elections during every other war, including the Civil War. So we'll do just fine, come hell or high water or the sheer hubris and stupidity of the Bush administration.